Differences in the Development of Mathematics Motivation within and across Socioeconomic Status: Do Early Adolescents' Failure Beliefs Matter?

Interest in socioeconomic differences in academic motivation has been longstanding. However, previous research has often treated both low- and high-SES students as homogenous groups. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the developmental trajectory profiles of mathematics motivation during early adolescence, with a focus on variations within and across SES groups. Multigroup latent class growth analysis was used on a sample of 3718 early adolescents in China (initial Mage was 9.40 ± 0.52 years; 48.0% girls) across 2 years from grades 4 through 6. The analysis identified three distinct self-determined mathematics motivation trajectory profiles within each SES group: a good-quality profile (i.e., initially high autonomous but low controlled), a high-quantity profile (i.e., initially high both autonomous and controlled), and a low-quantity profile (i.e., initially low both autonomous and controlled). A greater proportion of low-SES students were observed within the low-quantity profile than within the good-quality profile. The study found that the failure-is-enhancing view was a protective factor against two relatively maladaptive motivational trajectory profiles (i.e., high-quantity profile and low-quantity profile), irrespective of socioeconomic background. These findings emphasize the importance of implementing motivational interventions for early adolescents that consider both structural factors (e.g., socioeconomic backgrounds) and psychological factors (e.g., failure beliefs), to foster students' academic development.

Math items about real-world content lower test-scores of students from families with low socioeconomic status

In many countries, standardized math tests are important for achieving academic success. Here, we examine whether content of items, the story that explains a mathematical question, biases performance of low-SES students. In a large-scale cohort study of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS)-including data from 58 countries from students in grades 4 and 8 (N = 5501,165)-we examine whether item content that is more likely related to challenges for low-SES students (money, food, social relationships) improves their performance, compared with their average math performance. Results show that low-SES students scored lower on items with this specific content than expected based on an individual's average performance. The effect sizes are substantial: on average, the chance to answer correctly is 18% lower. From a hidden talents approach, these results are unexpected. However, they align with other theoretical frameworks such as scarcity mindset, providing new insights for fair testing.

Pride-and-Prejudice Perspectives of Marginalization Can Advance Science and Society

Research that conceptualizes marginalization as tied to both pride and prejudice—or as simultaneously a source of strengths and stigma—is especially well positioned to address social problems in ways that can fuel progress for science and society. This review integrates insights from current research to highlight that leveraging pride-and-prejudice perspectives of marginalization can spark meaningful advancement toward mitigating social inequalities. Specifically, focusing on marginalization associated with race-ethnicity, social class, refugee status, and gender identity and sexual orientation, it highlights burgeoning research that harnesses pride-and-prejudice perspectives to advance psychological theory and application linked to (a) inclusion among marginalized groups and (b) intergroup attitudes among more dominant or privileged groups. The review concludes with a discussion of implications for future research and policy directions that can foster inclusion and facilitate positive intergroup attitudes amidst challenges tied to a racial reckoning (e.g., resource or economic scarcity, backlash to diversity and multiculturalism).

Fostering Teachers' Multicultural Competence for Chinese Ethnic Minority Education: An Analysis of Teacher Education Programmes, Syllabuses and Teacher Educator Perceptions

The multicultural characteristics of students belonging to ethnic minorities in China pose challenges for teachers. Teacher competence in dealing with culturally diverse students has been extensively discussed in international scholarship and referenced by Chinese researchers, but there is limited empirical research on how teacher education programmes in China respond to this challenge and theoretical discussions. Based on content analysis on teacher education programmes and syllabuses, as well as expert interviews with four teacher educators at two teacher education institutions, this study investigates how the cultivation of multicultural competence is incorporated into teacher education programmes, and the external forces that shape it. Drawing on international scholarship on teachers' multicultural competence and Cochran-Smith's framework on external forces influencing multicultural teacher education practices, I argue that the cultivation of teachers' multicultural competence for their future work in ethnic minority education is, to a great extent, missing from teacher education programmes. Furthermore, what pre-service teachers' competence covers, and the external forces that influence how teacher education plays out in practice, are influenced and somewhat determined by the large social, economic and political context as well as the agenda for educational reform in China.

Complicating College-Transition Stories: Strengths and Challenges of Approaches to Diversity in Wise-Story Interventions

In response to the growing numbers of minoritized students (e.g., low-income, first-generation, students of color) transitioning into U.S. systems of higher education, researchers have developed transition-assistance strategies, such as psychologically wise-story interventions. Through a rigorous, theory-driven approach, wise-story interventions use stories to encourage students to develop adaptive meanings about college-transition challenges, subsequently allowing students to persist. Yet there is one critical distinction between existing wise-story interventions. Well-known examples endorse a color-evasive message that all students, regardless of their demographic backgrounds, share similar struggles when adjusting to college. One variation in wise-story interventions ties transition struggles explicitly to students' identities, adopting more of a multicultural perspective. Drawing from diversity frameworks, we offer in this article a comparative analysis of these variations; we outline under what conditions, for whom, and through which processes these varying approaches to identity affect student outcomes. In this discussion, we reflect on both the strengths and challenges of wise-story interventions and offer considerations for extending these approaches. Specifically, we ask whether integrating critical perspectives into wise-story interventions better addresses the experiences of minoritized students as they navigate institutions historically built for dominant groups.

Beyond students: how teacher psychology shapes educational inequality

Although researchers investigating psychological contributors to educational inequality have traditionally focused on students, a growing literature highlights the importance of teachers' psychology in shaping disparities in students' educational achievement and attainment. In this review, we discuss recent advances linking teachers' attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs to inequality in students' outcomes. First, we identify specific aspects of teacher psychology that contribute to educational disparities, including teachers' biases, perceptions and expectations of students, beliefs about the nature of ability, and beliefs about group differences. Second, we synthesize mechanisms underlying the effects of teacher psychology on educational inequality, including teachers' disparate assessment of students' work and abilities, interpersonal interaction with students, and psychological impact on students. Implications for future research and interventions are discussed.

How Do Young Children Explain Differences in the Classroom? Implications for Achievement, Motivation, and Educational Equity

Classroom settings bring to light many differences between children—differences that children notice and attempt to explain. Here, we advance theory on the psychological processes underlying how children explain the differences they observe in the classroom. Integrating evidence from cognitive, social, cultural, developmental, and educational psychology, we propose that young children tend to explain differences among their peers by appealing to the inherent characteristics of those individuals and, conversely, tend to overlook extrinsic reasons for such differences—that is, reasons having to do with external circumstances and structural factors. We then outline how this inherence bias in children’s explanations affects their motivation and performance in school, exacerbating inequalities in achievement and making these inequalities seem legitimate. We conclude by suggesting several means of counteracting the inherence bias in children’s explanations and its effects on their educational outcomes. Throughout, we highlight new directions for research on the relation between children’s explanations, their motivation and achievement, and the inequalities observed in elementary school and beyond.

Understanding Culture Clashes and Catalyzing Change: A Culture Cycle Approach

U.S. Americans repeatedly invoke the role of "culture" today as they struggle to make sense of their increasingly diverse and divided worlds. Given the demographic changes, cultural interactions and hybridizations, and shifting power dynamics that many U.S. Americans confront every day, we ask how psychological scientists can leverage insights from cultural psychology to shed light on these issues. We propose that the culture cycle-a tool that represents culture as a multilayered, interacting, dynamic system of ideas, institutions, interactions, and individuals-can be useful to researchers and practitioners by: (1) revealing and explaining the psychological dynamics that underlie today's significant culture clashes and (2) identifying ways to change or improve cultural practices and institutions to foster a more inclusive, equal, and effective multicultural society.